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Channel veteran Justin Crotty joins MaintenanceNet

The long-time Ingram Micro exec joins a company that uses Big Data analytics to capture annuity contract revenue data for OEMs and distributors, which is then passed to channel partners to create immediate renewal sales opportunities.

MaintenanceNet, which uses Big Data analytics to provide OEMs and distributors with actionable data to increase their channel partners’ sales, has announced the appointment of Justin Crotty as Vice President of Global Sales, where he will have responsibility for MaintenanceNet’s global sales teams, sales operations and sales resources.

Crotty is best known in the channel for his tenure at Ingram Micro, where he rose to lead the Services Division and Ingram’s Micro Seismic division for MSPs. He spent the last four years at an OEM, NetEnrich, where he was general manager and senior vice president.

MaintenanceNet’s customers are IT OEMs and distributors. Their core competency is Big Data and data analytics and they automate that data to capture information about annuity contract revenue opportunities, which is then forwarded to the customers’ channel partners as actionable items.

“We identify and capture their annuity contract revenue and allow their channel partners to make money, Crotty said. “For instance, we enable Cisco to deliver to their VARs actionable renewable revenue opportunities, actionable meaning ‘click here to buy.’ Resellers can take that information and get a sale and drive revenue on that.

“We don’t disintermediate anyone, and don’t throw bodies at the problem, like a Business Process Automation solution would,” he added. “We use our strength in analytics to take the data from the OEMs and the distributors and identify the opportunity to drive revenue for everybody. That’s the key differentiator and that’s how MaintenanceNet makes their bread and butter.”

Crotty said he came to MaintenanceNet because that business outcome they provide is relevant to all the manufacturers, SaaS providers and downstream resellers.

“The issue is how to best drive revenue in a recurring annuity business, which is a problem for everyone in the channel, and which is not addressed efficiently,” he said. “Helping them recapture and grow their renewal base is a very compelling value proposition. I was a customer of theirs at Ingram, where I recognized that this is a huge problem for distributors, that every year millions in maintenance contracts was falling off the table. I got to know the team here, and have watched the company grow since then.”

Crotty said that while distributors want to provide such services, several already hire MaintenanceNet to do the back end for them.

“It’s just not their business,” he said. “At Ingram we had a choice to make, try to build something internally or go to someone whose sole reason for existence was to solve this problem. Ingram Micro isn’t in the Big Data annuity identification business, so why would we attempt to build that, when we can immediately enable our entire channel.”

Crotty said that when MaintenanceNet gets engaged with a prospective client, the client is typically either thinking about doing it themselves, or think they have a system that kind of does it.

“They lose a lot of money because of that,” he said. “This solution doesn’t cost them money. We drive revenue growth and we get paid on the revenue growth that we drive. There is an upfront cost, but revenues generate double digit times the cost to deploy the solution. We will capture incremental revenue you aren’t getting today, period.”

Crotty, in his second week on the job, believes he can bring a lot to the table at MaintenanceNet.

“I’ve got good channel DNA, and understand channel issues very well,” he said. “I was a former customer and sat on the other side of the table. Having been with a distributor and an OEM, I have a really good feel for all points in the value chain. We have a lot of big brand name customers now, but we won’t be satisfied until every OEM is a customer.”